Sometimes, red voters are blue voters too

Hanging on the wall of Clinton Town Hall are photographs of former congressmen Philip J. Philbin and Joseph E. Casey and David I. Walsh who served as U.S. Senator, governor and lieutenant governor.

All three were Democrats and the photographs of the august Clintonians give the impression that the town is a bastion of Democrat politics. It is and it isn't.

In the Nov. 6 election, Clinton was one of the Central Massachusetts towns that voted to support Democratic President Barack Obama. But the town was among a number of communities that split their vote, also supporting Republican Sen. Scott Brown.

The same trend took place in Auburn, Gardner and Grafton, among other communities.

Eating lunch at the Simple Man Saloon, Sheila Azorandia of Clinton said she predominately votes Democrat but drew the line with Elizabeth Warren.

“With Brown I thought he was really independent and Elizabeth Warren, she just scared me,” she said.

Mr. Brown beat Ms. Warren in Clinton by a slim margin, 3,060 to 3,003. Mr. Obama, however, ran strongly against Republican Mitt Romney in the town, 3,492 to 2,451.

Ms. Azorandia said she was comfortable with the president and wanted to give him another term. She said she liked Mr. Brown's willingness to cross party lines.

“But more that Elizabeth Warren scared me,” she said.

The campaigns buried voters in advertisements, many negative, but the vote often came down to the personalities of the candidates or impressions they had of them.

“I was kidding with someone that I voted for the really handsome man,” Dinorah Caraballo said.

Ms. Caraballo said Mr. Brown visited her office in Town Hall during the campaign, but she said really, the reason she liked him was she felt he had an independent view. She said she believed he would work with the Democrats.

Ms. Caraballo said she supported the president the first time around. And cast a vote for him again this year.

“I wasn't disappointed by him at all,” she said, adding that she had little faith in Mr. Romney making any positive changes if he got elected.

Auburn High School junior Ricky Phan is not old enough to vote, but he voted in school and cast his ballot the same way a majority of adults in town cast theirs.

He said he chose Scott Brown mainly because of the negative views he was hearing about Elizabeth Warren.

“Everyone said she wasn't good,” he said.

Auburn voters strongly supported Mr. Obama and Mr. Brown. They voted for Mr. Obama over Mr. Romney, 4,495 to 4,116. Mr. Phan said he did not like Mr. Romney, saying he would work only for the wealthy.

“Obama would support the middle class better,” he said.

Molly Boneville of Auburn is a registered voter and cast her ballot for the president and Mr. Brown. She was one of 5,096 Auburn voters who supported Mr. Brown, who defeated Ms. Warren in the town by 1,399 votes.

For her it was just a feeling about Ms. Warren when she heard her speak.

“She just rubbed me the wrong way,” she said.

Ms. Boneville said she supported the Democrat ticket down the line except Ms. Warren. She is an unenrolled voter who tends to vote Democrat. She was at the Auburn Post Office yesterday afternoon and ran into Paula Bernard, a friend she hadn't seen in 20 years. Ms. Bernard is from Brimfield. She is also an unenrolled voter who voted for the president and Mr. Brown.

Ms. Bernard said Mr. Brown's family spent the night during the campaign at a hotel where she works.

Gardner is another community known as a Democrat community, although you wouldn't know that if you looked at presidential votes over the years. The city supported both Bushes, Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon, but also Presidents Obama and Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter over Gerald Ford. President John F. Kennedy was also a frequent visitor to the city when he was a U.S. Senator. Gardner also supported Lyndon Johnson.

This time it went with President Obama over Mitt Romney by more than 1,300 votes. In contrast, it supported Mr. Brown over Ms. Warren by 178 votes. The city had a strong booster for Mr. Brown in Mayor Mark P. Hawke who enthusiastically supported his candidacy and even drives a black pickup similar to Mr. Brown's signature truck.

But like in other towns, the votes came down to simply some people just liked Mr. Brown's personality more than his opponents.

“I liked him as a person,” said Virginia A. Trudel as she worked making candy at Priscilla Candy Shop on Main Street in Gardner. “I didn't like her.”

Mrs. Trudel said she also liked Mr. Brown's wife, Gail Huff, who visited Priscilla Candy Shop during the campaign.

Down the road at NU Café in Gardner, Bonnie Melanson said she was convinced to support Mr. Brown by his bipartisanship.

“That was huge for me,” she said.

Mrs. Melanson said she is a Republican but doesn't vote a strict Republican ticket. She went for Mr. Obama but wanted a senator in Washington she thought would work both sides of the aisle. She said she also did not trust Mr. Romney on women's issues and foreign affairs.

If background was a deciding factor, Grafton might have gone for Mr. Romney. The Republican nominee is a Mormon and Grafton was the home of Mormon pioneer Joel H. Johnson. It was also the home of Gordon M. Nelson who served as chairman of the Republican State Committee from 1976 to 1980.

The Republicans have to be happy with the town's support of Mr. Brown who out polled Ms. Warren in the town 5,451 to 3,989. But the town also went for the president 4,853 to 4,427 for Mr. Romney.

“He's trying to fix the economy,” said Cheryl Provencal as she shopped in the Grafton Stop & Shop Supermarket.

Ms. Provencal said she wanted the president to have a second term to continue fixing the economy, which she said was already broken when he took office.

“I think he got a raw deal,” she said.

Ms. Provencal also said she was concerned about Mr. Romney's views toward women. As for Mr. Brown, she said he was a bipartisan senator, something she does not believe the senator-elect will be.

“He works with all people, Republican and Democrat,” she said.

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